Stories of Hogwarts School
by ashfeather1
Summary: What were Harry's schoolmates up to while he was off killing Basilisks and destroying Horcruxes? This is a collection of different scenes from the POV of some of the side characters in the Harry Potter series during Harry's time at Hogwarts. [Photo by Vinícius Vieira Fotografia from Pexels]
1. Chapter 1

_**[YEAR 1]**_

_**[Dean]**_

Dean Thomas was having a very normal day. Well, as normal a day as you could get if you were Dean Thomas. He'd gotten detention again, this time for supposedly leaving a rat in Will Waterson's locker, and none of his teachers would listen when he tried to explain, where on earth would he have gotten a rat from? The problem was, it had a little bow tie around its neck that looked suspiciously like the bow that had sat in the hair of Aditi Anand's Barbie doll before Will had snatched it from her. Will was a great big bullying git, and Dean was the only one brave enough in their class to stand up to him. This tended to land both of them detention, but more often for Dean, because he was always getting blamed for odd things happening around him. The first day of primary school, Will had started going on about Dean not having a real dad and ended up with his pants around his ankles. Dean hadn't moved an inch, but 'why would Will take off his own pants?' the teachers had argued. Since then, odd things had always happened around Dean, and his mother was constantly getting calls from his teachers complaining that he was 'a very bright boy, and would be very successful if he focused more on his studies and less on pranks.'

_Why is it always me?_ he thought. Today he had landed detention for accidentally replacing Will's baked beans at lunch with mayonnaise, but because it was his birthday his teacher had let him off early. He had just arrived home, rather hungry and hoping Mum had a snack ready, when he saw a tall and strict-looking woman in the sitting room. She was wearing a business-like grey suit and spectacles.

"Ah, Mr. Thomas," said the woman in a brisk voice. "We've been waiting."

"Sorry," said Dean, looking at his mother, who was sitting on the sofa looking rather dumbstruck. "I was in detention," he said sheepishly.

"What was it this time, Dean?" asked his mother, half-exasperated and half-amused.

"It wasn't my fault, I swear! Only Will Waterson was making fun of Greg Gardner for being a 'tubby bucket of lard' during lunch. I told him to shove off and then he rounded on me but next thing you know he's spooning mayonnaise into his mouth instead of beans!" he said defensively, but he couldn't restrain a grin as he recalled Will's face after he'd taken a spoonful.

The woman in the suit frowned slightly and Dean's grin faded.

"Mr. Thomas, I'll get straight to the point. I'm Professor McGonagall. I am a teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where you have been accepted."

Dean stared.

"You will have noticed peculiar incidents occurring around you for much of your life, sometimes landing you in trouble," Professor McGonagall continued. "This is normal for underage wizards. At Hogwarts, you will learn to control and hone your magic. You will learn alongside witches and wizards your age from all around Britain."

Dean continued to stare. "What? I'm not a wizard. There's no such thing as wizards."

"I understand that this is a lot to take in," said Professor McGonagall in a gentler voice, looking between Dean and his mother. Then she looked at Dean curiously. "Mr. Thomas, I take it that Richard Thomas is not your biological father?"

"No," cut in Mrs. Thomas, looking slightly angry now. "Dean's father left before he was a year old. He didn't give an explanation as to why and I haven't heard from him since."

"And he never mentioned anything? About Hogwarts, or the wizarding world?"

"No," said Mrs. Thomas firmly.

"It doesn't matter," said Dean fiercely. "I have a dad and his name is Richard. He helps me with my homework and takes me to football practice and he's just as much my dad as he is my sisters'."

"Very well," said Professor McGonagall. Dean had expected her to frown even further at his outburst but instead he saw a ghost of a smile on her lips. "I have a letter for you, Mr. Thomas. It explains everything I have just told your mother, as well as a list of school supplies, details on where and how to purchase them, and instructions on how to get to school. I will see you on September 1st."

And with a small pop, she disappeared.

"Blimey!" said Dean. "This is a brilliant birthday, Mum!"

_**[Neville]**_

"Gran! Gran, look!" exclaimed Neville, waving a piece of paper around in the air. "I've received my Hogwarts letter!"

"Of course you did," sniffed Augusta Longbottom. "Any son of Frank and Alice Longbottom's would be down from birth, naturally." Neville detected a hint of relief on her face, however. His entire family had thought he was a Squib until Great-Uncle Algie had accidentally dropped him out of a window and he'd bounced across the garden instead of breaking his neck. "We'll have to head to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies," she continued.

"Will we go to Ollivander's, Gran?" asked Neville excitedly. "For my wand?"

"No, you'll be using your father's old wand," said Gran. "He was a great wizard, your father, and you will be too. Here," she said, bustling to the sideboard and pulling out a long, thin box.

Neville took it from her. It felt funny in his hand. He waved it around vaguely, and the bulbs of the chandelier overhead suddenly exploded.

Gran's mouth thinned. "Not to worry. You'll learn at Hogwarts. You'll do us proud, Neville, and live up to the Longbottom name."

_**[Dean]**_

"Mind if I join you?" asked Dean. He had gotten onto the Hogwarts Express all right, his parents and sisters seeing him off at Platform 9 and ¾, but now came the hard part – figuring out where to sit. It seemed as if all the compartments were filled with older students that already knew each other, until he finally found a compartment with two boys who looked about his age, one blond and the other sandy-haired.

"Come on in," said the blond one. "My name's Macmillan. Ernie Macmillan. This is Seamus Finnegan."

The sandy-haired boy nodded.

"Did you hear?" said Ernie once Dean had settled down. "They're saying Harry Potter's on the train!"

"Blimey!" said Seamus. "Who's Harry Potter?" asked Dean.

"Muggle-born, are you?" asked Ernie.

"What's Muggle-born?" asked Dean, who was feeling more and more clueless as the conversation went on.

"Muggles are non-magical people. Witches and wizards born to non-magical parents are Muggle-born," explained Ernie. "Doesn't make a difference, of course. My parents say if magic's in your blood, it doesn't matter what your parentage is."

"I'm half-blood," Seamus said. "Me Dad's a Muggle. Mam's a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out."

"So who's Harry Potter?" asked Dean.

"It's a long story," said Ernie.

"Back before we were born," Seamus started explaining, his voice suddenly pitched low as if he were telling a ghost story over a campfire. "There was a slimy old snake roaming Hogwarts, with eyes red as the Devil's and skin pale as snow…."

"What Seamus means," interrupted Ernie. "Is back during our parents' time, there a wizard who went Dark. Really Dark. My parents won't tell me all the awful stuff he did, but he killed and tortured a lot of people. Then, ten years ago, he tried to kill the Potter family. Killed Harry Potter's parents, James and Lily Potter, but when he tried to kill Harry, he just…couldn't."

"They say the curse rebounded," said Seamus. "Killed You-Know-Who instead. Baby Harry Potter was able to kill the darkest wizard of all time, and he's here on this train!" he finished, awestruck.

"Who's You-Know-Who?" asked Dean.

"You-Know-Who. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The Dark Lord," replied Seamus.

"What's his real name, though?" pressed Dean.

"So, what Houses do you think you'll be in?" interjected Ernie, looking slightly terrified and very clearly trying to change the topic.

_**[Parvati and Padma]**_

"I think I'd rather be in Ravenclaw," said Padma musingly. "We'd have a better chance of doing well in our classes, wouldn't we, if we were in Ravenclaw."

"Gryffindor probably has cuter boys though," Parvati giggled. "Less nerdy."

Padma laughed, but then became worried. "We will both be in the same House though, right? They can't split us up!"

"I dunno. The Weasley brothers have all been in Gryffindor, but I don't think it's genetic. Mum and Mausi were both in different Houses...but we're twins! They can't split us up," said Parvati confidently.

"As long as we're not in Slytherin," they both said with a grin.

_**[Ernie]**_

"Macmillan, Ernie!" called Professor McGonagall, and Ernie strode forward to sit on the stool and have the Sorting Hat dropped onto his head.

"Hmmm," mused a voice in his ears. "Intellect, I see a lot of intellect here. And drive, you've got plenty of drive…that's a trait Salazar would have liked…"

A stab of panic ran through Ernie. The Sorting Hat chuckled.

"Don't like the thought of Slytherin, eh? Don't worry boy, you wouldn't fit in there, not at all…now Ravenclaw, on the other hand, I could see you in Ravenclaw. But there's a fair bit of patience too…and perseverance. Well, I think it'd better be….HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat shouted the last word for the whole hall to hear, and the Hufflepuff table erupted into cheers.

**Author's Note:** Mausi = mother's sister (aunt)


	2. Chapter 2

Note: I'm using Canadian English while writing this fic (though I have been incorporating some British slang). E.g. "pants" refers to trousers or jeans and not underpants, and I've used "bangs" instead of fringe.

**[YEAR 1] [Dean]**

He could, Dean thought, get used to wizards' clothing. It had been weird at first, walking around wearing what was essentially a long billowing dress. Hogwarts' school robes were long, plain and black, closed and fitted through the torso but flowing at the hem, with loose arms. Clothing underneath, Dean had learned, was optional. Some students wore pants or a shirt underneath, sometimes both, while others treated the robes as an outfit all on their own. While the first-years stuck to the dress code, many of the older students had customized their robes by adding crests or trim and other embellishments showing their House affiliation, and almost all of the older students had forgone the pointed black hat. Dean was still of the opinion that boys should wear pants however, unless they fancied wearing a kilt, and wore Muggle clothes under his wizards' robes.

Dean had thought he would have a lot of catching up to do with his classmates who had come from wizarding families, but it turned out that Hogwarts was so full of surprises that all the first-years had a bit of a learning curve the first few weeks. Navigating the castle and its trick staircases, remembering passwords, food magically appearing and disappearing during meal times in the Great Hall – it was new to all of them. Even in their classes, they had started out on even footing. The only person who had a leg up was Hermione Granger, and that had nothing to do with her magical heritage – she was simply hard-working and brainy. Dean was also thankful to Seamus, who seemed to understand better than some of the others what aspects of the wizarding world were confusing to Muggle-borns. "Me Dad's a Muggle, remember? I grew up with Mam explaining our world to him." Then he proceeded to run Dean through some of the more complicated rules of Quidditch on their way to Transfiguration.

"There are, and always will be, limitations to magic," Professor McGonagall was saying. "Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, first proposed by Hesper Gamp in the late 1800's, is a fundamental law outlining what can and can't be done in the field of Transfiguration. Can anyone name one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law?"

Hermione Granger's hand shot up so fast she almost smacked Lavender Brown on the nose.

"Food," Hermione said. "As well as water and gold, cannot be conjured out of thin air. Animals cannot be transfigured into humans. And aging cannot be reversed."

"Right you are, Miss Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor. Food can be Summoned if a witch or wizard knows where it is, or increased in quantity to a certain extent. Food can also be transformed from one thing to another, with limitations, of course. For example, you may be able to turn an apple into broccoli-"

"Why would you want to do that," whispered Seamus to Dean.

"-but you cannot take an apple and turn it into a pot roast."

"Shame," whispered Seamus.

"Similarly, because water is a finite source on this planet, we cannot conjure it from nothing. Water can be Transfigured from another liquid, such as rum-"

"Again, why would you want to do that," whispered Seamus.

"Do you have a question, Mr. Finnegan?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Er – no, Professor," said Seamus sheepishly. Dean grinned.

"As I was saying, water can be Transfigured from another liquid, but what you are really doing is extracting the water from the liquid and Vanishing the remainder. Therefore, you will end up with a smaller volume of water than you did rum. The _Aguamenti_, or Water-Making Spell, which you will learn in your Charms class in the future, appears to conjure water from nothing, but it is really conjuring water from existing sources – for example, a nearby lake or glacier, or condensation in the air. Because of this, _Aguamenti_ is more difficult to execute in dry environments than here in Scotland. We cannot Transfigure an animal into a human, but we can Transfigure a human into an animal. This is very tricky magic, however, and can go seriously wrong. For now, we'll continue to focus on turning animate objects into inanimate objects. Today we'll be Transforming mice into snuffboxes."

Hermione put her hand up. "Professor," she said. "You haven't told us about gold or aging."

Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, who were sitting in front of Dean, looked up in interest.

"Gold cannot be transformed from something else, or multiplied, by normal means of Transfiguration-," replied Professor McGonagall.

"Pity," said Ron sadly.

"-and while there are potions that can be used to temporarily decrease the _appearance_ of age, there is no potion that can truly make one younger or prolong life. The field of Alchemy explores those latter two exceptions to Gamp's Law more deeply, but it is very complex."

Ron and Harry were looking more and more interested as Professor McGonagall went on.

"Dunno why Weasley's so interested," joked Seamus. "He barely managed to make his feather Levitate in Charms."

"Look who's talking," replied Dean. "You almost burnt down the classroom before Harry put your feather out with his hat."

**[YEAR 1] [Padma]**

They had Herbology with the Slytherins that morning. Professor Sprout liked to encourage the Houses to mingle, and so Padma found herself at a table with fellow Ravenclaw Lisa Turpin, as well as Millicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass. Daphne was small and quiet, but Millicent made up for it with her large build and firm jaw. They nodded at Padma and Lisa and then went back to spreading fertilizer onto their Bouncing Bulbs.

Millicent, who had rather large, thick fingers, was having trouble with one of her Bulbs. Lisa quickly fired off a Knockback Jinx before it smacked Daphne in the face.

"Perhaps grasp it less firmly," suggested Lisa. "They only fight like that if they feel threatened."

Millicent merely glared, but Daphne gave Lisa a grateful smile.

"So Padma," said Millicent a few minutes later. "Heard your sister's got a thing for Hogwarts' biggest rejects. Who d'you think she likes better, fat little crybabies or specky little gits with chicken legs?"

Padma ignored her. Parvati had told her about the Gryffindors' first flying lesson with the Slytherins. Draco Malfoy had started making fun of Neville Longbottom after he'd fallen off his broom and gone to the hospital wing and Parvati had told him off. Then Malfoy had stolen Neville's Remembrall but Harry Potter had gotten it back with a spectacular dive on his broomstick. Now there were rumours flying around that he'd made the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The Slytherins were not pleased.

"Idgets," muttered Lisa as class was coming to an end and everyone was cleaning up. "Dunno why I even bother. That Greengrass girl is all right, but the rest of them are all prats."

Padma merely smiled and discretely fired a spell at a Spiky Prickly Plant that Millicent happened to be passing by as she put her Bulbs away. The plant immediately started thrashing its thorny vines at its nearest target. Millicent jumped back howling, which set off the Bouncing Bulbs in her hands.

"Bulstrode!" shouted Professor Sprout, immobilizing both plants with a spell. "How many times have I said, these plants need a gentle hand! They only retaliate if they feel threatened. Five points from Slytherin!"

"Nice one," whispered Lisa gleefully. "Sprout must really be fed up with her, she never takes away House points!"

**[YEAR 1] [Seamus]**

"_Eye of rabbit, harp string hum, turn this water into rum_," recited Seamus, waving his wand.

"Give it up, mate," said Dean, laughing. "I don't think that's a real spell-"

"Look!" shouted Seamus excitedly. "It's changed! Go on, give it a try!"

Dean looked down dubiously at the pale brown liquid in Seamus' goblet. "How do I know it's rum? What if I drink it and die?"

"You're not going to die, go on, taste it!"

Dean took a sip. His eyes widened as he stared at Seamus in awe. "You've done it, Seamus!" Seamus looked at him excitedly. "You've made tea!" finished Dean, sniggering. Seamus' face fell. "And a pretty weak tea, by the way."

"You'll be eating your words, Thomas," said Seamus. "When I've made Galleons selling the stuff to our classmates. _Eye of rabbit, harp string hum, turn this water into rum!"_

The goblet exploded, setting Seamus' bangs on fire. Hermione quickly set the fire out with her wand while Fred Weasley, who was sitting next to Dean, howled with laughter.

"Why is it always me?" asked Seamus to no one in particular.

**[YEAR 1] [Neville]**

"You could have invited one of your friends over for the second half of holidays, Neville," Gran was saying as they approached the derelict department store that hid St. Mungo's. "But nevermind, there's also the summer holidays."

Neville stayed quiet. Who would he have invited? His fellow Gryffindors were friendly, but all paired off - Ron and Harry, Seamus and Dean, Parvati and Lavender. Hermione Granger was nice to him and always willing to help him out in his classes, but had inexplicably befriended Ron and Harry after Halloween. While some of his classmates seemed frustrated by Hogwarts' strict schedule and curfews (Harry Potter, mainly), Neville was grateful. He took his meals in the Great Hall and attended classes with his House, and in the evenings headed up to Gryffindor Tower to do his homework and spend time with Trevor. He didn't mind homework much - his wandwork was abysmal, but he understood the theory just fine and managed to scrape acceptable grades on all his assignments but Potions. The only person Professor Snape seemed to dislike more than Neville was Harry Potter.

"Frank and Alice would have been very happy about you starting at Hogwarts," Gran continued, "You can tell them all about your first term, though I doubt they'll understand."

Neville visited his parents twice a year: once in the summer on his birthday, and once at Christmas. As they walked through the cool glass entrance and landed in the St. Mungo's lobby, he recalled his first memories of his parents. His four-year-old self hadn't realized how odd his parents were. They'd both had big smiles for Neville. His mother had given him a shiny candy wrapper and his father had had great fun playing with the floating silver bells that decorated the hospital during Christmas, making Neville giggle. Then his four-year-old self had tried to eat the wrapper and nearly choked, and Gran had whisked them out of there. It wasn't until Neville had gotten older when he'd started understanding the snippets of conversation between adults at family dinners; when he'd realized that big smiles came along with vacant eyes, thin and wasted faces, and wispy, dead hair; when he'd noticed the silence. His parents had never spoken to him all his life.

When he was seven, Neville's Gran had sat him down and told him why his parents were the way they were. A witch name Bellatrix Lestrange had tried to torture information out of them for her master, Lord Voldemort. Gran told him everything - how Bellatrix had used the Cruciatus Curse on them, how they hadn't yielded, how they'd been driven to insanity. The only thing Gran wouldn't tell him was what information Voldemort had wanted so badly. When he'd asked, she'd pursed her lips, shaken her head, and told him "never mind that, just be proud you are their son Neville, and when you get into Hogwarts and get trained up, you'll make them proud, too."

Neville was not sure if he was making his parents proud. He was arguably the worst in his year, though possibly not as bad as those two Slytherins, Crabbe and Goyle. He did not tell Gran this, however.

"How are your classes going, Neville?" asked Uncle Algie at the Longbottom Christmas Dinner.

Neville could feel Gran's eyes on him.

"Fine," he said, taking a bite of pudding.

"I hear Harry Potter is in your year at Hogwarts," said his aunt Luanne.

"And in the same house, too," said Gran. "Neville was Sorted into Gryffindor." There was a hint of pride in her voice that very rarely came about when speaking of Neville's accomplishments.

"Just like your parents," beamed Uncle Algie, ruffling Neville's hair.

Neville took another bite of pudding.


	3. Chapter 3

_**[Year 1] [Parvati and Padma]**_

Christmas at the Patils' was a casual affair. The majority of Parvati and Padma's family lived in India (Ahmedabad, to be precise). Parvati and Padma's grandparents had moved to London in their twenties and soon after had two twin girls – Padmini, Parvati and Padma's mother; and Priya, their aunt. Priya was the rebellious one. Upon graduating Hogwarts at the age of seventeen, she and the twins' now-uncle Arjun had run off and gotten married in Gretna Green without telling anyone, and now lived in France with their son, Akshay.

The twins were not a big fan of their cousin. At the age of fifteen, he had a bit of a condescending air when speaking to his younger cousins. He also had the added misfortune of having grown up French.

"Parvati! Padma!" Priya exclaimed, stepping out of the fireplace and pulling her nieces into a hug. The herbal scent of Floo powder clung to her sweater. "Look how you've grown!" She pressed a Galleon into both of their hands, and then snuck Parvati an extra one as Padma turned to greet their uncle. "For getting Sorted into Gryffindor," Priya whispered, incredibly loudly and indiscreetly, with a conspiratorial wink. Padma caught Parvati's eye and stuck out her tongue, then grinned to show no hard feelings. Parvati didn't feel bad. The twins' parents had been in Ravenclaw and were immensely proud that at least one of their daughters had been Sorted into the same.

"'Zis 'Ogwarts concept of Sorting," Akshay interjected. "'Eet is not good for school morale, I think. At Beauxbatons we do not 'ave such a thing. Instead, we are divided into seven different colours, completely at random of course, to determine where we stay within 'zee Castle, but take classes with our entire year. I think 'eet is a better system."

His words were met with a few beats of incredulous silence.

"Biryani?" Padmini asked brightly, ushering them all into the dining room.

_**[Year 1] [Seamus]**_

".. and then he comes running into the Great Hall, his turban on sideways, yells something about a troll in the dungeon, and faints!" said Seamus as his cousin Fergus howled with laughter. "And then we found out that Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger found it in the girls' bathroom and knocked it out!"

Seamus' father looked aghast.

"What were Potter and Weasley doing in the girls' bathroom?" sniggered Fergus.

"You know what?" mused Seamus. "I never asked."

_**[Year 1] [Dean]**_

"Come on, Dean!" said his younger sister, Evelyn. "Show us!"

"I've told you, Evy," Dean said patiently. "I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school."

"Oh, not even a little bit? You were always breaking the rules when you went to the same school as me."

"That was different. These are wizards. They'll know."

"If Dean-bean is a wizard," piped up his youngest sister, Holly, "does that mean we're witches, Evy?" Her six-year-old's pronunciation made "Evy" sound like "Ewie."

"Probably not," said Evelyn, a little sadly. "I bet Dean's a wizard because his dad is a wizard." Catching sight of Dean's face, she quickly amended, "His biological dad, I mean."

"What's that?" asked Holly.

"Well," said Evelyn, "Mum was married to someone else before she married Dad. And after they got married, Dean was born. But then Mum married Dad, and we were born."

Evelyn was only eight, and intelligent beyond her years.

"Come on," said Dean, changing the topic. "Let's go see if we can steal some Christmas cake before dinner, shall we?"

"Ewwwwwww!" said Holly.

"Only you like Christmas cake, Dean!" laughed Evelyn.

Dean laughed and shepherded them into the kitchen, but Evelyn's words sat in his mind. He didn't know anything about his biological father, who had walked out on the family before Dean's first birthday without a word. Dean's mother wouldn't even tell Dean his name. "Thomas" was Dean's step-father's surname.

_What if he _was_ a wizard?_ thought Dean. _It'll be easier to find him if he's a wizard._

There were much fewer wizards than Muggles, and perhaps they kept a record somewhere. Dean vowed to ask Hermione Granger once the new term resumed after the Christmas break. If anyone knew, it would be her.

But first, he needed a name.


End file.
